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Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine works in kids ages 5 to 11

While kids are at lower risk of severe illness or death than older people, more than 5 million children in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began and at least 460 have died, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Cases in children have risen dramatically as the delta variant swept through the country. “I feel a great sense of urgency” in making the vaccine available to children under 12, Dr. Bill Gruber, a Pfizer senior vice president, said.

Pay business insurance claims or face enforcement, UK watchdog says

“Where we see that insurers are not meeting the expectations set out here, we will use the full range of our regulatory tools and powers to ensure they do so,” the FCA’s executive director for consumers and competition Sheldon Mills said in a letter to insurers’ chief executives.

The watchdog brought the test case on behalf of policyholders last June, saying it could affect 370,000 policyholders and 60 insurers, paving the way for an estimated 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of claims.

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COVID-19 vaccination: Nearly 14 lakh beneficiaries inoculated

Senior government functionaries on Friday told a parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare that India has no plan to vaccinate the entire country against coronavirus as yet and that covering 50% to 60% of the country’s population should be enough to safeguard the population.

Government’s principal scientific adviser, Vijay Raghavan, and AIIMS director, Randeep Guleria, told the panel that India does not see any foreseeable possibility of a vaccine shortage.

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Japan coronavirus vaccination uncertainty casts doubts over Olympics

Many Japanese have a vague unease about vaccines, said Dr. Takashi Nakano, a Kawasaki Medical School professor and vaccine expert. If something (negative) happens after inoculation, people tend to think it’s because of the vaccine, and that’s the image stuck in their mind for a long time.

The history of vaccine mistrust in Japan dates back to 1948, when dozens of babies died after getting a faulty diphtheria vaccine. In 1989, cases of aseptic meningitis in children who received a combined vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, prompted lawsuits against the government, forcing it to scrap the mix four years later.

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New online tool can calculate COVID-19 transmission risk in poorly-ventilated places

Scientists agree that the vast majority of Covid-19 cases are spread through indoor transmission, whether via aerosols or droplets.The researchers noted that it only takes a matter of seconds for aerosols to spread over two meters when masks are not worn, implying that physical distancing in the absence of ventilation is not sufficient to provide safety for long exposure times.

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COVID-19: India records 14,545 new cases

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,02,83,708 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.78 per cent,while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 2 lakh for the third consecutive day. There are 1,88,688 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprise1.78 per cent of the total caseload,the data stated.

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Biden launches ”100 days mask challenge”; makes COVID-19 test, quarantine mandatory for people entering US

The death toll will likely top 5,00,000 next month, he said, adding that the cases will continue to mount.
“Our national plan launches a full-scale wartime effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it. And when I say wartime, people look at me like wartime? Well, as I said last night, 4,00,000 Americans have died. That”s more than World War II… this is a wartime undertaking,” he said.

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